So in the first town in the game. Had a outdoor bare knuckle fight with the owner of a drinking establishment. The controls really pissed me off. Firstly there isnt a simple screen showing you controls as mapped to the pad as you get in EVERY OTHER GAME. No why do something so simple and helpful. Random bashing buttons to figure out what did what during the fight. Oh there is an occasional screen hint, "press square to block" but it doesnt appear all the time. Won the fight in the end but that really annoyed me

Also not being able to change the colour of the aiming dot. A white dot in snowy conditions doesnt really help with shooting.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Pretty sure there is a controls screen, hidden in the options maybe?

Edit: Sorry, you mean during that particular fight.

I couldnt find a control screen as per every other game. There are sub screens written like news articles which cover stuff. But the melee section has no listing of controls. Its baffling.

Paul the sparky wrote:

It had a tutorial which taught you the buttons. And on screen prompts during the fight. And it's not complicated enough that a couple of button presses can't reveal everything you need to know within seconds anyway.

The real baffling thing here is how this issue could have been so obtuse as piss you off so much while still being straight forward enough for you to be able to win the fight.

I died more than a few times. I also forgot the button combos from the tutorial hence looking for the controls page in the menu

I didn't find the controls that bad, but they are definitely convoluted, the first Red Dead Redemption feels nicely streamlined in comparison. The main thing is clicking with the fact there are effectively two 'states' - gun drawn and gun holstered. Don't worry, Dino, you'll soon be happily punching your horse in the face!

Fancied playing this during my current All Things Western phase, £60 on the ps store?! Fuck that.

I'd be down for that mate, no idea how it works but let me know I'll be very grateful!

If that doesn’t work I’ll send you my PS4 copy in the post.
I’m going in again but on PC so I’ve no need for it. It’s yours if you fancy it?

Edit. At nick obvs

Let us know your thoughts if you get it Nick. It is my favourite Western of all time. It is a love letter to the genre.

 Great, enjoy!

Played this all afternoon, when it just you and the horse galloping to some far away checkpoint it is really really nice. I've done about 10% of the story, got sidetracked by the biography writers request so have been off hunting down the crew.

Some bits do annoy me, the crime reporting stuff especially. Was in a salon, had a bath was leaving and bumped into some stranger, a brawl started i punched him through the doors and got a reported for vandalism charge.

The most annoying was three seperate attempts to go to a gunstore (the same one btw). First time round i wont spoil. Second time my horse hit the window or something and i got reported for vandalism and third time i some ran over a man with the horse while pulling up to the gun store. Bloody controls.

Anyway still a beautiful game scenery wise. Looking forward to getting some more game time tonight hopefully.

Cheers Davey, I'll see if unc comes up with the goods first simply because I don't want to be hitting you up when I want to play (appreciate the offer though, believe me).

https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/22/18298277/red-dead-redemption-2-pc-review-rdr2-story-design-criticism

One of the longest videogame posta i have ever read that breaks down all the components of RDR2 and goes to town on it. Well worth a read, over a number of loo breaks (its abbloody long post, covering game design and whatnot).

A few hours into this now (thanks unc, you're my favourite).

It's a damn fine game, but by fuck it does its best to hobble you with controls. Now, I've been playing vidjagames for over 30 years, so I can kinda figure stuff out, but fuck me I'd hate to try to figure this thing out as a newcomer. Nothing is broken ofc, it's just very context sensitive, but I still haven't figured out what the 'press [white button shape] to learn more' button is. I swear I've tried them all.

I also feel like I've missed out by not finishing RDR, I only ever did mp and free roam with buddies on that - am I missing stuff? They keep refering to the backstory, from what I can tell. I think I'll almost certainly load it up and do the story after I finish this.

Its not you buddy, the controls take awhile to get used to. The game throws in new context controls for a situation which you will never use again just to add to the confusion.

This is a prequel to RDR.

I'm up to chapter 3 now. Theres stuff the game never tells you that you have to google. I.e. how to fast travel. Yes its a beautiful game to look at but sometimes you want to get to your destination asap rather than spend 10mins travelling holding down the X button. Until thats unlocked you can use the trains to fast travel.

So have so far found it pointless to get a new horse, they're all the same as far as i can tell. Minor differences, plus once you get a bond with your horse maxed you can't be arsed breaking a new one in.

Gun shop is abit pointless, never ran out of ammo or had to buy a gun or modify one.

None of these are spoilers so shouldnt affect your enjoyment of the game nick. It has its strengths and weaknesses. But its an enjoyable romp. The scenery at times is breathtaking, dusk and dawn being two particular favourites in the right lighting.

It does tell you how to fast travel when you unlock it.
(when you upgrade your camp btw)

Gun shop improves all your weapons and your weapons need regular maintenance and cleaning or they will start to degrade and you won't be doing as much damage and such like.